Report: 17th International DOCOMOMO Conference 2022

The biennial Docomomo Conference, under the theme “Modern Design: Social Commitment & Quality of Life”, took place in Valencia, Spain, between the 6th and the 9th September, 2022. Venue of the conference was the School of Architecture, Universitat Politècnica de Valencia (UPV-ETSA)

Several Belgians participated in the congress with lectures, as session chair, in the workshops and also holding positions as member or chair of specialist committees.

Selin Geerinckx was one of the instructors during the students workshops on the site of the Cheste Workers University prior the conference. In Session S02 #01 called ‘A Century of Revolutions and Revolutionists Post-war’ three lectures were held on Belgian topics. Ann Verdonck  presented her studies on Victor Servranckx (1897-1965) and his abstract art in an architectural setting; Selin Geerinckx (co-author Els De Vos) showed a new design methodology on how the modernist apartment vision of abstract painter Jozef Peeters could have been (un)folded;  and Margot Missoorten (co-authors Ann Verdonck and Marjan Sterckx) shared with the public new insights on the Belgian Cubex Kitchen as A Revolutionary Recipe for Housewives. Giulia Marion brought her work entitled Beyond the Synthèse des arts. The behaviorism of Jean Tschumi’s postwar interiors in session 03 #02 on ‘The Visible and the Invisible’. Session S19 #06 was the responsibility of Zsuzsanna Böröcz, President of Docomomo Belgium. This Session entitled ‘‘Material imagination’: on the changing meaning of the MoMo’s materials and technologies” dealt with the modernists commitment to improve the quality of life, stimulated not only by a desire for a new era but equally by past experiences and the availability of materials.  Luc Verpoest, honorary president of Docomomo Belgium took active part of the meetings for the Docomomo Manifesto on Education, launched during this conference. Also, Karina Van Herck as member of the ISC of Urbanism and Landscape, and Julia Marino as member of the ISC of Technology participated in the council meeting of these Specialists Committee’s. Zsuzsanna Böröcz, co-chair with Bárbara Coutinho of the ISC of Interior Design organised and chaired the council meeting of this research group with two Belgian members, Els De Vos and Eva Stoorgaard, both present at the conference. The next Docomomo Journal, dedicated to Modern Plastic Heritage will be published by the end of the year. Guest editors of this Journal are Zsuzsanna Böröcz, Robert Loader and Silvia Naldini with three Belgian contributions by Zsuzsanna Böröcz, Katarina Serulus and Nick Serneels (co-authors Philippe Lemineur and Marike Jaenen).

More info: docomomo.com/17th-international-docomomo-conference/